On a freezing night, south Kashmir trio travel 120 Kms to donate blood

Your humanity can persuade you to overcome extremely unfavourable conditions, an example of which came about recently when three young men from southern Kashmir traveled 120 kilometers to donate blood and save a life.

On the freezing evening of December 30, Mushtaq Ahmed of Avengound village in Pulwama district received a Whatsapp message on his ‘J&K blood donors’ group to save a life in danger more than 120 Kms away from his home.

“It was around 7pm when I got to know through Whatsapp group that a man in his 30s was in urgent need of blood. I rang up my friend who lives in Batmaran Shopian which is 16 Kms further away from my home,” Ahmad, a university student said.

“He happily agreed to accompany me along with his cousin. We left after few hours and travelled more than 120 Kms to Baramulla district hospital for this noble act.”

The critically ill patient needed six points of blood but only three were available, the WhatsApp message had mentioned, and many registered donors were unable to reach the hospital.

One among the trio, Gowher Ahmed from Batmaran Shopian had to appear for an exam the next day.

“Exams come and go but life once lost cannot be brought back, many insisted to me that I should not go but I did not agree,” said Gowher, a college student.

“In a place like Kashmir where we are facing turmoil on daily basis, if we cannot stand for each other who else will? It was my first blood donation and I felt so good about it.”

Gowher’s cousin, Arshid Ahmed also accompanied the two friends, and trio reached back to their homes at 3 am on December 31 after making the blood donation in Baramulla.

“We donated one point each and by the time we left all six points of blood were arranged,” Arshid said, as the other two nodded in relief.

A lot of praise was showered on the trio over the social media, including by the top police officer, Basnat Rath who is one of the administrators of the Whatsapp group ‘J&K Blood donors’ and is very active on social media platforms regarding blood donation.

“What is Selfless service? A stranger needs blood in Baramulla. A student wants to donate. He is in Pulwama right now. Around 100 Kms away. Minus 4 degree Celsius. It’s 7:30 PM. He has started for Baramulla right now, He has an exam tomorrow,” Rath wrote on his twitter account.